IP: Lessig-Valenti Debate and ICANN Candidate Forum

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000 07:39:53 -0400
> To: farber () cis upenn edu
> From: Wendy Seltzer <wendy () seltzer com>
> Subject: Lessig-Valenti Debate and ICANN Candidate Forum
>
> I thought IPers might be interested in these events from the Berkman Center
> for Internet & Society: A debate between Larry Lessig and Jack Valenti,
> live and webcast this Sunday.
>
> > October 1, 2000 at 7:00 p.m. EDT
> "The Future of Intellectual Property on the Internet: A Debate"
> Ames Courtroom, Austin Hall, Harvard Law School, Cambridge and online at
> <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/futureofip>
>
> Then on Monday, the Berkman Center and Internet Democracy Project will host
> the seven North-American candidates for At-Large election to the ICANN
> board for an informal dialogue followed by a formal candidate debate. These
> events will also be webcast with remote participation.
>
> > October 2, 2000
> "A Dialogue with the Candidates," 4:20-6:00 p.m. EDT
> Moderated by Jonathan Zittrain, Assistant Professor of Law, Harvard Law 
> School.
>
> "ICANN North American Candidate Forum," 7:30-9:30 p.m. EDT
> Moderated by Jean-Claude Guedon, University of Montreal
> Panel to include Declan McCullagh, Washington Bureau Chief, Wired News, and
> Hiawatha Bray, Boston Globe
>
>  For more information, including how to register to attend or view the live
> webcast, visit the "A Day with the ICANN  North American Candidates" 
> website at
>  <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/icann/candidateforum>.
>
> --Wendy
>
> ***************************
>
> Jack Valenti and Lawrence Lessig to Meet at Harvard to Debate
> the Future of Intellectual Property on the Internet
>
> Cambridge, MA - In the ideological war being fought over rights
> to digital content in the age of the global Internet, Motion Picture
> Association of America head Jack Valenti and renowned cyberlaw
> expert Lawrence Lessig represent its most powerful conflicting
> forces. On October 1, 2000 at 7:00p.m. EDT, Harvard Law School's
> Berkman Center for Internet & Society will present a debate
> between Valenti and Lessig on the future of intellectual property
> online--the subject of increasing controversy in the wake of
> emerging technologies that allow for the easy sharing of digital
> content among consumers, and recent decisions in judicial cases
> testing the propriety of such technologies. Free and open to
> the public, "The Future of Intellectual Property on the Internet:
> A Debate" takes place in the historic Ames Courtroom in Austin
> Hall on the Harvard Law School campus, and will be webcast live
> to an international audience.
>
> Jack Valenti has served as head of the MPAA since 1966.  He
> made headlines this year speaking out on behalf of the established
> film and music industries against those who, in his view, use the
> Internet to steal others' intellectual property. Valenti has called the
> defense of such property key to America's continuing economic
> prosperity, and the MPAA has joined other publishers in an aggressive
> legal battle to protect (and some would say, extend) intellectual property
> rights in this era of digital media and Internet technology. The list of
> industry targets--Napster, iCraveTV, 2600 News Magazine in the New
> York DeCSS case, RecordTV.com and Scour--is growing, as is the roster
> of recent legislation intended to enhance the control of copyright owners
> over their works in new media.
>
> Lawrence Lessig, a Stanford University law professor and author of the
> highly-acclaimed "Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace," offers a different
> perspective on possibilities for the digital environment, leading a
> movement to restore the public interest in our popular, legal, and
> technical conceptions of intellectual property. Lessig urges us to treat
> the Constitution's copyright clause as striking a balance between private
> intellectual property and a public intellectual commons, warning that
> should the balance tilt too far in favor of copyright holders, the public
> will risk losing its constitutionally-mandated right to a vibrant public
> domain.
>
> Valenti and Lessig have most recently clashed in the pages of the Industry
> Standard, expressing divergent views of how the Internet should evolve, and
> what the balance of control should be between publishers and readers on-
> and off-line.
>
> "Cheap bandwidth and large hard drives have made it easy to copy and
> disseminate digital content, including content 'ripped' from CDs and DVDs
> without permission of the respective publishers," says Harvard Law School
> professor Jonathan Zittrain, faculty co-director of the Berkman Center and
> moderator of the debate. "How do we define and protect the legitimate
> rights of intellectual property owners without extinguishing fair use?
> This is a debate to explore that question, focusing on shades of gray in
> what is often seen as a black and white issue."
>
> "The Future of Intellectual Property on the Internet: A Debate" is part of
> an ongoing series of online discussions and webcast conferences presented
> by the Berkman Center that are designed to address serious constitutional
> questions now pending in the courts while exploring innovative uses of the
> Internet for educational and public interest purposes. For more
> information, including details on how to register to participate, in person
> or on the Web, please visit the following website:
> <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/futureofip>.
>
> The Berkman Center for Internet & Society is a research program founded to
> explore the legal, social, and political issues resulting from the
> development of the Internet and its impact on society. Predicated on the
> belief that the best way to understand cyberspace is to actually build out
> into it, the Berkman Center pursues a program of active research that
> integrates the building and use of Internet tools with study of the issues
> the Internet engenders. As part of this active research mission, the
> Berkman Center develops, uses, and freely shares an open software platform
> for online education and deliberative processes, as well as sponsoring
> events--ranging from informal lunches to webcast conferences--to bring its
> diverse network of participants together for substantive debate.
>
> This event is free and open to the public, and will be webcast
> live to an international audience.  Please feel free to forward
> this announcement to friends and colleagues.
>
> ---
> Wendy Seltzer -- wendy () seltzer com
> Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School
> http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/seltzer.html